1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector designed to prevent half-insertion of terminals.
2. Related Art
There is known a conventional connector of the type in which detection is made to determine whether or not any of terminals received in terminal receiving chambers is in a half-inserted condition (see, for example, JP-A-8-288017 Publication).
As shown in FIG. 10, the connector 100 disclosed in Patent Literature 1 comprises a housing 101 for receiving terminals, and a front holder 102 attached to the housing 101 from a front side of this housing 101. The front holder 102 has strip-like half-insertion detection portions 103 and 104 extending toward a rear end of the housing 101.
An elastic retaining arm 114 is provided in each terminal receiving chamber 105 of the housing 101, and retains the terminal received in the terminal receiving chamber. A flexure space 115 is provided above the terminal retaining arm 114. As the front holder 102 is attached to the housing 101, the half-insertion detection portions 103 and 104 enter the flexure spaces 115, respectively.
Here, if the terminal is half inserted in the terminal receiving chamber 105, the elastic retaining arm 114 interferes with the terminal, and can not be restored into its initial condition, and therefore is kept projecting into the flexure space 115. The half-insertion detection portion 103, 104 of the front holder 102 is guided by a slanting surface formed at a distal end of the elastic retaining arm 114 projecting into the flexure space 115, and is brought into abutting engagement with an abutment surface formed at an upper edge of an opening of the flexure space 115, and therefore is prevented from entering the flexure space 115. Therefore, the front holder 102 can not be attached to the housing 101, and thus the half-inserted condition of the terminal can be detected.
However, in the connector disclosed in JP-A-8-288017 Publication, although a half-inserted condition of the terminal can be detected, the terminal can be not be inserted into a predetermined position within the terminal receiving chamber through the operation of the front holder. And besides, it can not be determined which terminal is in the half-inserted condition. Therefore, it is necessary to again push the individual terminals respectively into the terminal receiving chambers, and therefore the efficiency of the assembling operation is low.
Typically, a terminal has at its distal end portion a contact portion for contact with a mating terminal, and its proximal end portion is connected to a wire, a circuit on a printed circuit board or the like, and is more flatten or thinner as compared with the contact portion. The connector disclosed in JP-A-8-288017 Publication is of such a construction that the terminals are inserted into the housing 101 from the rear side thereof. Therefore, the terminal is inserted into the housing 101 with the contact portion first introduced into the housing 101, and the terminal receiving chamber 105 is formed into a size corresponding to the size of the contact portion so that the contact portion can pass through the terminal receiving chamber 105. As a result, the proximal end portion of the terminal received in the terminal receiving chamber 105 is not restrained by partition walls forming the terminal receiving chamber since this proximal end portion is is more flattened or thinner as compared with the contact portion, and therefore the proximal end portion can be easily shaken or jarred by external vibrations or others, and there is a fear that the connection of the terminal to the wire, the circuit on the board or the like may be adversely affected.